Karnataka drugs control department will have the new drugs controller posted from the IAS (Indian Administrative Services) cadre in the wake of the multi crore drugs scam. This is the first time the state government decided to have an IAS officer to head the drugs department.

According to highly placed officials in the State government, the likely candidate to head the department is Maheshwara Reddy, an IAS officer who is yet to join duty.

The government has issued the transfer order for R Anand Rajashekar, the drugs controller who has been absconding soon ever since the raid and investigation launched by the Lok Ayukta on March 26. There seems to be no trace of the former drugs controller in the city or in his hometown.

The Lok Ayukta in its interrogations has issued show cause notices to three drugs department officials- Anand Rajashekar, H Jayaram, additional drugs controller and current in-charge of the department and B G Prabha Kumar, deputy drugs controller.

The three officials have been sent notices asking them to offer their comments on the allegations and the depositions made against them. The officers have been given a period of 15 days time to give their reply to the Lok Ayukta as the three officials (H Srinivas, M N Ramamurthy and Kranti Kumar Bhaskar) from the drugs department who were interrogated pointed their fingers at Anand Rajashekar, Jayaram and Prabha Kumar.

It may be recalled that a few days before the raid in the offices of the drugs department, Anand Rajashekar, had applied for Voluntary Retirement Scheme (VRS) on health grounds. Informed sources said that the officer might have known the possibility for a raid by the Lok Ayukta which has been investigating spurious and date expired drugs in various health centres and hospitals in the state.

But now the raids at the drugs department have seen that his application is being rejected. It is only likely that a decision on the application can be taken only after the interrogations by Lok Ayukta.